British Comedy Guide

Laughing Stock 2011 Page 20

I made it through to the next round. I then got the other 'if you haven't heard from us yet separately' etc email. Which made me think it was a mailing list email that all entries would get at the same time.

I must admit when I saw a second email from bbcwritersroom by heart sank. I thought it was gonna say 'We've made a hideous mistake, actually your script is shit,'

Ooh, get you with your two emails when some of us got none! ;) Only joking! I could imagine feeling like that too! Good luck with round two!

Yeah, I hated the wording of that email. Made me second guess and wonder if I would get the email telling me I'm through.

Though as I understand it, the people who got through received their email around an hour before the "Sorry, you're not going through" type email.

Glad to see a few BCGers are through, well done and good luck with the next stage!

Given that it's ten per cent, makes it approx 180 people... which means most of us will still lose!

Quote: Antrax @ March 12 2011, 8:57 AM GMT

Given that it's ten per cent, makes it approx 180 people... which means most of us will still lose!

I like to think of it as failing with style. Actually I'll go all anti Charlie Sheen and be bi-losing :)

Surely we (anyone who has received a rejection letter at all) have the right to feel slightly aggrieved when there are two programs such as 'Coming of Age' and 'Mongrels' still being given a slot on the BBC schedule?

Congrats to all those who did succeed though... what are the best suggestions for going forward after this? Regarding other places to send scripts to.

I was just going to keep sending the BBC the same script, ten copies a day for the next year until they finally submit

Quote: Dr Plimp @ March 12 2011, 2:52 PM GMT

Surely we (anyone who has received a rejection letter at all) have the right to feel slightly aggrieved when there are two programs such as 'Coming of Age' and 'Mongrels' still being given a slot on the BBC schedule?

Kinda, but then they still pull in the viewing figures, and have teens tuning in. And of course older people who should know better. I'm mostly referring to coming of age here, by the way. I could tolerate mongrels!

But then if I got a sitcom made their fans might find it shit, ha. Opinions.

True that. After reading the script examples given for the competition, I found that the script for Mongrels read a lot better than it seemed to show on TV, for me watching it I find it ok but not too good - yet the script was much better. With Coming of Age it must just be the teen thing, or a fluke lol...

I guess sometimes a script can read great, end up not so good, or the other way round, where it reads badly but would make a good show.

Exactly, different tastes for different people, can't please everybody so got to hope you please just enough people in the first place

Quote: Dr Plimp @ March 12 2011, 4:18 PM GMT

I guess sometimes a script can read great, end up not so good, or the other way round, where it reads badly but would make a good show.

I think that's probably got a lot to do with how it's directed and how the script is interpreted. I wrote a script that I rehearsed script in hand and the producer and actors reacted they way I had hoped they would on their first reading. But then an excerpt was performed without me being part of the process and they'd taken a totally different spin on it and made it into some kind of a 70s romp!

In that case I may not have written it well enough for it to be interpreted how I wanted it to be, but acting styles, the director's interpretation and other choices made during filming can probably change the tone quite a lot and you might not get the same show as you would expect from reading the script.

This from Fiona/Writersroom blog:

"Hi all,

Apologies to those of you who haven't yet received an email from us in response to your Laughing Stock entry. We've sent an e-mail to all entrants who have provided us with an e-mail address, but unfortunately a number of these have come back as undeliverable. We're looking into this at the moment and are making every effort to resolve it."

You may yet have got through... :)

Quote: Skinny Agnus @ March 15 2011, 11:18 AM GMT

This from Fiona/Writersroom blog:

"Hi all,

Apologies to those of you who haven't yet received an email from us in response to your Laughing Stock entry. We've sent an e-mail to all entrants who have provided us with an e-mail address, but unfortunately a number of these have come back as undeliverable. We're looking into this at the moment and are making every effort to resolve it."

You may yet have got through... :)

I think, given the tweet request for a specific writers email address earlier, it's unlikely that anyone who hasn't heard yet has got through, I'd guess.

I got through I know that.

Mmmmmmmmmm, the script I sent to Laughing Stock (and luckily got through to the next round) I had also sent to the Writers Room back in November. Just got a generic 'we hate it' letter in the post so I don't hold out much hope for the same script in Laughing Stock!

I guess I will be the laughing stock when the reader who binned it first time round gets to read it again! Hopefully he/she will be off sick.

Errr

Quote: Scar Bum @ March 16 2011, 8:41 AM GMT

Mmmmmmmmmm, the script I sent to Laughing Stock (and luckily got through to the next round) I had also sent to the Writers Room back in November. Just got a generic 'we hate it' letter in the post so I don't hold out much hope for the same script in Laughing Stock!

I guess I will be the laughing stock when the reader who binned it first time round gets to read it again! Hopefully he/she will be off sick.

Errr

I sent a script to WR a couple of years ago. By the time they got back to me 4 months later to tell me they weren't interested, a producer had submitted it to one of the comedy commissioners who liked it enough to commission a pilot script.

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